Product certification is generally the process of certifying that a product or application has passed a number of technical certification requirements or guidelines (e.g., functional, performance, or quality assurance tests). In some instances, certification indicates that a product is suitable for a specified purpose. Popular and common certifications may include Underwriters Laboratories (UL) that frequently tests products for safety, and the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) that frequently tests that products do not interfere with the communication spectrums. Generally certification does not guarantee that a product works flawlessly, merely that it meets a standardized set of minimum qualities.
In some instances, software may also be subjected to a certification process. For example, a server or host application may be developed that allows other software applications or modules to interact with or modify the functioning of the host software. Such additional software applications may be referred to as “add-ins”, “plug-ins”, “third-party software”, etc. Occasionally, these additional software applications are referred to as third-party software products because they are made by someone other than the maker of the host software application. However, it is not unknown for a first-party, the host software application maker, to make add-ins for their own products.